This was the scene on Southport Seafront at 10.30 on a bank holiday Monday.

Thousands of trippers are arriving to be greeted with a sea of filth and rubbish.

Classic resort.

Originally Posted by roving-eye

This was the scene on Southport Seafront at 10.30 on a bank holiday Monday.

Thousands of trippers are arriving to be greeted with a sea of filth and rubbish.

Classic resort.

Southport town is being used as a rope in a Tug o'war! Business people recognise immediately how to raise large amounts of profit from a town - a procedure which appears to have gone over the Council's head. Either that, or perhaps attention to Southport revolves around the electorate's choice of party.
It is high time that those in leadership realised that by investing into Southport - in particular the beach - they would receive a very large return on that investment. If the beach was to be cleaned of all the grass which is holding mud and water - and the area spread in fresh sand - it would attract far more tourists. Temporary stalls could be erected on the beach catering for refreshments, a free paddling pool could be installed for the children - each of which would be providing jobs for local people.
The sand could be protected from being washed away by inserting a series of groynes on the beach which would also aid for cleaner water. Tourists would flock to the area and bring more custom to the local shops, which would lead to more employment as shops are reopened again. A multi-storey car park could be built at the far end of Southport beach, north end of the Marine Lake, the coastal road fronting the beach could be widened to accept car parking - the whole cost of which would be well worth the investment as the returns would be achieved in a comparable short term.
The council are doing nothing for the tourists! Southport is dependant on tourism! If large amounts of rubbish accumulated due to large numbers of people coming to town - it would be something to celebrated!

Just walked up to the Promenade behind some visitors asking each other
‘Why would you want to come here for a week?’ Good question ! the state of the infrastructure is a disgrace after years of neglect. Feel sorry for anybody trying to run a business here. Just back from France and the towns looked immaculate with no litter.

The bins were on their way to being emptied. It's called a Rota. The thousands of people in Southport I saw today mustve been unduly concerned by the emptying of one bin.

Why the constant talking down of the town?

Originally Posted by said

If large amounts of rubbish accumulated due to large numbers of people coming to town - it would be something to celebrated!

Err well that's exactly what has happened.
The town has been rammed with people all weekend.

I'm just glad visitors pay no attention to our local media constantly painting a negative picture of the town.

I hate to point the obvious out but it is those very same visitors who are filling the bins to overflowing. The Council cut there budget each year and people dispose of more waste each your. If the visitors took their rubbish home with them or shops sold less packaging then we wouldn't have as bad a problem?

I'm sure Sefton Council pleaded with the Nasty Party to keep on with the Austerity programme and forcing the rise of Council Tax to provide services THEY have lumped on the Council so they can blame them for any failures.

Sefton has been in decline since it's inception NOT just the last few years of Labour Control. My Last rates bill for Southport C.B. was £34 a year the following year, NOT Labour controlled, Sefton charged more than DOUBLE. So get off your high horse you Tories the grass is just as BROWN on your side TOO!

Originally Posted by Little Londoner

I'm sure Sefton Council pleaded with the Nasty Party to keep on with the Austerity programme and forcing the rise of Council Tax to provide services THEY have lumped on the Council so they can blame them for any failures.

Sefton has been in decline since it's inception NOT just the last few years of Labour Control. My Last rates bill for Southport C.B. was £34 a year the following year, NOT Labour controlled, Sefton charged more than DOUBLE. So get off your high horse you Tories the grass is just as BROWN on your side TOO!

Southport was already in decline when we were taken over by Sefton. The only concern of the Tory Councillors of Southport CBC had been the Rates bill which had actually DECREASED for a number of years before 1974. They had left the town to rot and the situation was made worse when the rates bill increased a considerable amount simply in order to standardise it with what those in Bootle had been paying at that time. We ended up paying for Bootle's extravagence, the increased cost of a larger organisation, the loss of several thousand jobs exported southwards and the reluctance of Sefton to spend any money at all on Southport.

I believe we are on a Panorama BBC programme soon who looked at local business in seaside resort, not sure on actual content till I actually see it, but the directors/producers say:- "Southport is no exception, the same demise is all over the country".

This I heard from a person filmed for the program!!!

Originally Posted by MargeSimpson

Southport was already in decline when we were taken over by Sefton. The only concern of the Tory Councillors of Southport CBC had been the Rates bill which had actually DECREASED for a number of years before 1974. They had left the town to rot and the situation was made worse when the rates bill increased a considerable amount simply in order to standardise it with what those in Bootle had been paying at that time. We ended up paying for Bootle's extravagence, the increased cost of a larger organisation, the loss of several thousand jobs exported southwards and the reluctance of Sefton to spend any money at all on Southport.

Your right so much of Seftons decline was started by the Conservative Council who failed to maintain the town and sold the beach/sand of which it mainly consisted of for the pedants)

This stripping of the sand allowed silt and refining waste to wash across the beach at its lower level.

Simple one word answer to the problems highlighted in the photographs - AUSTERITY - as implemented by the Lib Dems and Conservatives.

No doubt one of them could come on here and explain how you cut millions from a budget yet still deliver the same service.

Should that not read....'Thousands of trippers' bumping their **** in Southport.

If it is all national "austerity" and not the fault of Sefton Clowncil how come other towns are doing much better? Lytham St Annes, Llandudno, even Mumbles in Swansea are all looking prosperous and tidy while Southport is in steep decline and even Lord Street is beginning to look a disgrace (at the northern end particularly). The Clowncil surely is responsible for something... other than collecting ever more local tax in order to provide substandard services. Not fit for purpose.

Originally Posted by dav

If it is all national "austerity" and not the fault of Sefton Clowncil how come other towns are doing much better? Lytham St Annes, Llandudno, even Mumbles in Swansea are all looking prosperous and tidy while Southport is in steep decline and even Lord Street is beginning to look a disgrace (at the northern end particularly). The Clowncil surely is responsible for something... other than collecting ever more local tax in order to provide substandard services. Not fit for purpose.

You've listed some towns which, in your subjective opinion, look better than Southport.
I'd disagree with you about Lytham St Annes as parts of the seafront and town centres look very shabby.
Llandudno is not run on the same lines as Sefton - a private family control much of the land and provide extra funding.
The Mumbles I can't comment on.

You still however have failed to offer up an answer on how services continue to be delivered to the same standard with less staff and less money.
You do though offer us a clever play on words with 'Clowncil' but then spoil the effect by ripping the arse out of it.

You're not pratnee posting under another name are you?

I actually saw a discarded pop up tent as I passed the Sea front yesterday, a pop up tent! Brighton is also complaining about the sheer amount of rubbish left by tourists on their Beaches. May be this is a National problem & we as a Nation ought to think differently? Ok the Bins were full, they were designed to take the occasional wrapper of bits of rubbish. Not the sheer amount that was dumped in them over the weekend. Even if they had one person emptying the Bins all day long the sheer amount of waste would over whelm their ability to remove it. I don't see the main problem as the Bins over flowing, it's all the people who got up from where they were sat & walked away leaving their rubbish where they were sat. It sends a message to our children that it's ok to leave your rubbish where ever you feel, without any accountability. Where was the litter wardens over the weekend?